January 2010 Approval Poll: The Offensive Coordinator?
by bigfatdrunk on Jan 20, 2010 9:17 AM CST
Email
Print
Well, this one is a bit trickier. Kyle Shanahan ditched us in a fit of nepotism (I love my dad dearly, but there's no way I'd work for him), and we now have Rick Dennison as our offensive coordinator. But he hasn't done anything. So, I guess we'll give Baby Shanny a post mortem rating and a goal for Dennison to attain. Do you approve or disprove of the job Kyle Shanahan did as our offensive coordinator?
46 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
gotta love our offense.
because if done right, it can’t be defensed. the read routes/option routes that we run are based on the defense, not vice versa. which is why shaubby had such a good connection with OD, and which is why he has one with AJ. provided they keep those pieces together, add better protection and a decent RB, our offense will consistently rank in the top 5. i dunno if i would credit baby shan, but teh shaub has stated on many occasions that baby shan helped him out a lot. more telling? lets see how thunder dan performs next off season.
"Oh, I recognize this boy. He been ducking me so far, but I’mma have his ACL on my wall one of these days." - Bernard "Pat Killa" Pollard
http://www.twitter.com/doobieman21
Kyle Shanahan did a good job....
of being a pseudo OC in 2008, play-calling in all of what? One game? Then in 2009, calling the plays most of the time? But, just being the 2nd loudest voice when it came to game-planning. And, maybe being the play-caller when it mattered. The Texans OC job was good preparation to go onto his next job as Redskins OC, which will most likely be more of the same under his Dad’s oversight. It will be three more seasons before he can truly say he is a full-fledged OC.
I suppose if all of the stars, moons and planets align it could be possible, but what are the chances of that?
Voted approve.
Bad play-calling aside, you can’t argue with the numbers that our offense put up. And that’s with the lack of running game.
Big time offensive coordinators run big time offenses.
Where did the "Rick Smith is Awesome" post go?
I wanted to comment there that there still has not been an OFFICIAL word on what the criteria for the draft pick was. There has been speculation that it’s how many games he’s played in and snap percentage – but to my knowledge none of that came from someone associated directly with the Texans.
But more on topic – I don’t know how anyone could not approve of the job Kyle did. Considering the complete lack of running game (obviously not something Kyle was much involved with) I think he did really well… save for a lot of bad 3rd down calls.
Chris - www.HoustonDiehards.com
by HoustonDiehards on Jan 20, 2010 11:21 AM CST reply actions
There's a ringing endorsement if I ever heard one....
I suppose if all of the stars, moons and planets align it could be possible, but what are the chances of that?
That's why we took it down
I thought I saw it had been decided, but it hadn’t. Mea culpa completely.
A Texans fan. Really. No, I'm not kidding.
http://www.battleredblog.com
by bigfatdrunk on Jan 20, 2010 11:59 AM CST up reply actions
Oh, I get you
For the record, I also tried to contact Nick from HT.com, but never heard back. I imagine he’ll get to it eventually.
Chris - www.HoustonDiehards.com
by HoustonDiehards on Jan 20, 2010 12:03 PM CST up reply actions
I only had one issue with Baby Shan's work
and that was the incredible lack of consistency from one half to another. If we were good in the first half, the mindset seemed to be “let’s just stay the course and make them adjust.”
Then when “they” did, we seemed to freak out (see the following games: Miami, San Francisco, Indi #2, etc.)
It worked the other way around too, so we know the team was able to make a half time adjustment. It just seemed that the in game adjustment was non-existent.
That said, I still gave him an approval grade. Hopefully Dennison can help with that.
Ok, I respect the numbers we got out of our offense...BUT
I said I was “unsure,” b/c while at the end of the day I kinda feel that REMARKABLY (especially in light of how the season began) the offense’s inability to sustain drives in the second half of games cost us more W’s than the Defense did this season. Part of me thinks that the OC should figure out how to eat the clock when we have a lead, how to correct the fumbling problems we had, how to recognise the susceptibility of the running game and lack of physicality on the OL in the preseason, how to prepare for a solid 3-4 defense and keep a crappy kicker off the field.
Don’t get me wrong, I wish we had him back for next year, but I suspect a top experienced OC would have eaked out another win or two although probably at the cost of some of our stats. Our ranking and stats are not meaningless, but you can’t score 28 in the first half and then go three and out through the second half of games hoping the defense holds. I also would’ve liked to see him make sure they landed C.Benson last offseason, (if that had been possible from his position) and would’ve like to have seen less Chris Brown. Great job for his experience/age, but I’m sure he would love to have this season back and do things differently. So while I don’t think he did a bad job, I want significant improvement for next year in overall offense.
How could...
..anyone in their right mind not approve? Schaub (who’s in the Pro Bowl because pretty boy Brady is hurt, WAHHHHH!) had great numbers, as did AJ. Shanahan left us, but when it comes to the offense, and Dennison better get this from day one of camp, if it’s not broken don’t try to fix it.
"...and if I claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that I don't know". SL
Now I never claimed to be in my right mind...
So I can still vote “unsure.”
I guess I don’t know of exactly all the hats an OC wears. If they are charged with keeping the Offense composed in crunchtime to help them eak out close wins, then he needs to grow into that hat. If they need to keep their guys motivated to finsh strong and play for all 4 quarters, then he needs to improve there too. If an OC is tasked with ensuring the offense addresses its most glaring weaknesses in the offseason & would need to yell and scream to Smithiac for way more beef on the OL (starting with our midget C) and a legit short yardage RB…then he was ineffective in that role as well.
Really, I like the offense…it has talent and is fun to watch. And I like KS too. And I like a good love-in, but to fail to recognize the VAST areas for improvement Dennison needs to make is to our peril. A great offense does more than move the ball. It doesn’t commit silly and gamecosting turnovers & penalties, it needs to EXPECT & PREPARE for costly injuries in a brutal NFL season,. And a great offense needs to be able to eat clock to hold onto a win and stomp overmatched teams out of games so starters don’t have to finish every game of the year.
Does anyone remember the Saints preseason game or the home opener. Our OL was obliterated against the Jets and the offense seemed to stall out when the game was on the line several times throughout the season. We all knew we needed a legit short yardage back and a non-midget Center and our team failed to get either one for 09. We did try, but we underperformed in a number of games when it counted most and came up short of the playoffs this year. I know I’m not alone in thinking the Texans can play with any of the teams left out there right now and at least some of that failure to meet our potential should come back on the OC, regardless of his age/experience.
Perhaps contrary to popular opinion, I think our offense needs the most help of any unit this offseason. We have to expect Schaub to go down some time and be able to compete nonetheless, we HAVE to get a LEGIT starting caliber RB and two peoplemover OLmen. Our OC has to ensure he has the tools he needs to confidently rush the ball the ball for 1 yard on 4th down. These are Huge obstacles that we all recognised last year but failed to address.
I believe in the direction of this team and this organization, but have no illusions, we are at a crossroads where our new OC musn’t come in here tentatively. We are good, but want him to make us as awesome as I think we can be, even if it means lower stats or he breaks a couple dishes in the process. I want him to appreciate what we’ve got, but not be content to “preserve it” Trust in Dennison. I want us MUCH more physical up front, want to dominate the line in 4th & 1, want to eat clock to preserve a lead, want us to retire the stupid turnovers & penalties and finish teams off to season our backups throughout the season.
Go Texans!
Approve...
But if he had any involvement in that weak side-line out route that got taken to the house by Antonio Cromartie, then subsequently thrown again the very next game and dropped by a DB… Well, he gets downgraded a bit in my book.
I’m still worried by our red-zone offense, even if it wasn’t technically all that bad statistically. But overall, he did a pretty damn good job considering that he lost two starting linemen and a pro-bowl TE. Hopefully Schaub doesn’t regress at all with his departure.
Shanahan's problem in this poll, apparently
Was that the Texans offense didn’t suck total ass before he got here.
- Rivers McCown, From Mom's Basement | Twitter
Also
He’s not the coordinator of THE BEST DEFENSE IN FRANCHISE HISTORY™
- Rivers McCown, From Mom's Basement | Twitter
by riversmccown on Jan 20, 2010 4:13 PM CST up reply actions 3 recs
Actually
it was Chris Brown’s horrendous execution that made the play so bad. There was a wide open receiver at the back of the end zone yet CB opted to throw the football where there were 5 Jags and 0 Texans. If CB 1) threw to the open receiver or 2) threw the ball away or 3) tried to make a run, the play wouldn’t look THAT bad.
With that said, it is still a terrible time to experiment with such a fancy call so I voted unsure just because of that.
by RocketsAstros on Jan 20, 2010 10:38 PM CST up reply actions
Thank you Jordann...
I’m sitting here, fuming over how abrasively to phrase what I have to say back, but I know what it will lead to.
Serenity now….
Bacon tastes good... Pork chops taste good.
My man
No need to get heated up. It’s possible to disagree about this call, amirite?
The Texans.
by tehGrindCrusher on Jan 21, 2010 1:22 PM CST up reply actions
Look
I agree that it was a well designed play, I just wish it had been anyone other then Brown. Chris Brown can’t shoulder ALL of the blame for the play, and I’m not even going to blame Kubiak, because it was Shanny’s play.
www.manningface.com
Ok, you're neither close nor far from getting it...
You’re right in the middle of not getting it.
Gotcha.
Bacon tastes good... Pork chops taste good.
A few people have mentioned bad clock management
I didn’t notice it being one of the more glaring problems we had this year. At leat not as bad as, say, the Chris Brown halfback option pass against Jax. Can someone give some more concrete examples of this bad clock management?
The Texans.
by tehGrindCrusher on Jan 21, 2010 7:24 AM CST up reply actions
They can't...
It’s just the canned “reason to fire the coaching staff of the week” that just stuck because people kept reading and regurgitating it.
Bacon tastes good... Pork chops taste good.
Oddly I agree with you on this
And as you know, I was on the Fire Kubes bandwagon the last half of the season or so.
The Texans.
by tehGrindCrusher on Jan 21, 2010 1:24 PM CST up reply actions
Honestly, I can't remember who was on or off that wagon.
I was just wildly firing shots into the crowd. Still am, but the crowd is much smaller now.
Bacon tastes good... Pork chops taste good.
You could fire a shot into the bandwagon
and one out of the bandwagon, and you’d probably hit me with both of them.
The Texans.
by tehGrindCrusher on Jan 21, 2010 2:20 PM CST up reply actions
about the poll
it’s hard to say you disapprove of the OC on a top tier offense. however i got beef with his play calling in the redzone. AJ coulda had 20 touchdowns if we would be throw him the ball in the RZ. He’s a huge receiver and all i saw was over-thinking by Shanny. Don’t use him as a decoy, feed the man the rock. Also if your offensive line can’t push a D line 1 yard when it matters, stop trying to make them do it. I nearly puked watching our feeble goal line runs. I say disapprove because really all he did was do what Kubes did. It was his job to not screw up. he didn’t actually improve anything at all. in my opinion.
Looking forward to not having an 8-8 year!
by BattleRedHusker on Jan 21, 2010 7:08 AM CST reply actions
Yeah...
Somebody asked to make it a little more granular (somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, etc), but I left it more polar so there’s less wiggle room.
A Texans fan. Really. No, I'm not kidding.
http://www.battleredblog.com
I wanted to complain about that too.
However, I heard a stat about red-zone targets which forced me to look into it. It turns out, Andre is the most targeted receiver in the league in the red-zone.
Of course, the red-zone is a big place. He wasn’t targeted inside the ten and five yard-lines as much as some other guys. That would be my real beef with it, I suppose. But all things considered, our red-zone offense did improve remarkably this season, so I can’t really hold that against him. I’m curious how we would have fared with a healthy OD this season. He had already tied his career-high in TDs just halfway through the season when he got hurt…
I would prescribe targeting AJ
at least once in the first three downs inside the red zone. Also, OD. Let the other guys have all the scraps. But two of the first three downs to AJ and OD. Every time you get another first down, start all over.
I suppose if all of the stars, moons and planets align it could be possible, but what are the chances of that?
Andre should be great inside the 10
but we just can’t seem to run a proper fade. Either Schuab f’s up the throw or AJ gets jammed at the line(see the NE game).
www.manningface.com
They need to use their imagination and come up with ways to avoid the jam
There are ways. From the five yard line, with AJ, it would be killer.
Line up two receivers, one on the line, AJ behind the other receiver. Hike and off they go, where they go, only they know. The other receiver picks the coverage and AJ is free to run his route as Schaubby hits him for a TD. Countless routes could be run from that formation. No jam.
Line up two receivers; both on the line; shoulder to shoulder; one AJ, the other whoever. Hike; AJ hesitates, the other takes off and picks the coverage. AJ runs his route and Schaubby nails him for a TD. No jam.
AJ lines up in the slot. Hike; AJ roles toward the sideline and Schabby nails him on the numbers as he picks up momentum. With his size and speed, he runs right through any CB or S that wants to step in his way somewhere around the 3 yard line and AJ scores! Of course, he runs through that guy only if the TE misses his block. No jam.
I’m no X and O guy, but you see what I’m saying, right? Putting AJ out on an island by himself running to the corner of the end zone means the CB can be there to freely lay a jam on him. Throw a few monkey wrenches at the defense sometimes, is all I’m saying.
I suppose if all of the stars, moons and planets align it could be possible, but what are the chances of that?
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
